


Take Two

by Glitter_Lisp



Series: six [5]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Bipolar Harry Hook, F/M, Gen, Paparazzi, Past Child Abuse, Past Drug Use, Single Parent Harry Hook, Social Media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:22:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22790131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glitter_Lisp/pseuds/Glitter_Lisp
Summary: “Dude, did anyone ever tell you your kid looks like a blond Audrey Rose?” a cashier at Burger King asked. “Like, back when she was onKeeping Moody?”“Haha,” Harry said and started going to Wendy's, instead.-----They do their best, but Audrey is famous and CJ is her spitting image. It was bound to get out.
Relationships: Calista Jane "CJ" Hook & Harry Hook, Harry Hook & Audrey Rose, Harry Hook/Uma
Series: six [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620172
Comments: 2
Kudos: 54





	Take Two

**Author's Note:**

> Can be read separately from the main series. Will I ever leave the verse alone? Who knows. Will I ever pick up any of my old verses? We don't know that either.
> 
> As usual, spoiler-y warnings in the end notes.

“Dude, did anyone ever tell you your kid looks like a blond Audrey Rose?” a cashier at Burger King asked. “Like, back when she was on _Keeping Moody?”_

“Haha,” Harry said and started going to Wendy's, instead. 

* * *

He knew the question was coming before the woman even asked it and _damn it,_ he had been having fun talking to other parents. 

“So where's your wife?”

He doubted she even meant anything by it; he got the occasional “Is there a _Mrs._ Hook?” but Jordan just seemed genuinely curious why Harry was at the Mommy and Me group instead of someone else. 

“She's not around much,” he explained, not bothering to address the “wife” bit. “She has to travel a lot for work, but she comes back to visit pretty regularly.”

Her eyes darted down to his left hand—looking for a ring for once, not just staring at the tattoos—before she nodded, smiled sympathetically, then yelped and went to stop her son from stuffing a handful of Play-Doh in his mouth. 

* * *

“Just sign here, here, and here–”

Harry read every piece of paper the secretary handed him. Going by the way she gritted her teeth, he had a feeling most people didn't bother. He did sign two of the pages, but the third sheet he handed back. “I'm not signing that one.”

She frowned as she took it from him and spun it around to see which one he was refusing. Her face cleared a moment later. “Oh, this is a bit misleading. It says ‘promotional materials,’ but that's just to cover our bases. We're not going to be putting her on the brochures or anything without asking,” she said with a smile. “This is for things like class photos. There's a private Facebook group for each class; sometimes the teachers will put up pictures of the kids working on projects or going on field trips, just for the parents. It's nothing to worry about.”

“No, I realize that,” Harry said. “But I'm not signing it all the same. I don't even put pictures of her on my personal accounts.” He smiled as brightly as he could. “Never know who might see something. Call me paranoid, but I hardly trust social media.”

“It's all private,” she tried again. “The Facebook group, for example, you need a password for that. It's not something that just… random people are going to see.” Harry shook his head. “Sir, this is a _kindergarten.”_

“I've kept her offline for the last five years,” Harry said cheerfully. “Don't see why I can't keep it up now.”

“Right,” the secretary said, setting the paper to the side. “In that case, we'll need a form specifically stating that she _can't_ have any pictures posted online.”

Harry twirled the pen between his fingers. “Where do I sign?”

* * *

“It's been six years and people still ask me whatever happened to my kid–”

“She's not in fucking witness protection–”

“Maybe she should be! Maybe I just want her safe!”

“She _is_ safe, we can _keep_ her safe–”

“I was supposed to be safe too, and look what happened–”

“Yeah, because her royal goddamn highness was shoving drugs down your throat your whole life–”

“Don't talk about my grandmother, _god,_ you have no fucking clue what you're talking about–”

“I know exactly what I'm talking about because this is all shit that you've _told me_ about Leah–”

“Granny is not the problem here, I'm looking out for CJ–”

“You can't keep her a secret forever, someone's going to figure it out eventually–”

“Not if you would be _careful_ about it–”

“I am careful, you know how careful I am, but how long are you planning to hide her from the entire world–”

“As long as I possibly can–”

* * *

CJ’s eyes were big and full of tears. “Why are you mad at me?”

 _“I am not–”_ Harry cut himself off and took a deep breath. “I'm not mad, Duck. I just want to know why you told Zevon that.”

CJ’s lip wobbled. “He asked me what my mom does and why she's never here. And you said lying is _wrong.”_

“It is,” Harry said, pressing his hands to his face for a moment while he tried to calm his racing heart. “That's why we don't actually lie about it. What do you say when people ask about your mum?”

“She works at a club in Los Angeles,” CJ said dutifully. “And her name is Brianna.”

“Both of which are true,” Harry said. 

“True _enough,”_ CJ muttered. When Harry pulled his hands away to look at her, she looked mulish. “What? That's what you two always say, isn't it? That it's true _enough,_ because you still want to lie without actually lying!”

“It's not lying,” Harry pointed out. “Your mum’s name is Brianna, and she does work in a club.”

“She _owns_ a club,” CJ corrected. “And that's not even her real job, she just bought it for fun! And Brianna is _not_ her real name.”

“It's her first name, she just usually goes by her middle,” Harry said with a sigh. “Sweetheart, you know why we say those things. You remember… ugh, you remember that magazine? At the grocery store?”

“Being on a magazine would be cool,” CJ muttered. 

“Really?” Harry asked. “That kind of magazine?”

He was normally an expert at turning around the tabloids before CJ got a look at them, but she had snatched that one up before he saw it, grinning at the grainy shot of her mom before she read the headline and her face fell. _Audrey Rose OFF THE RAILS! Getting drunk, doing cocaine, and having SEX IN A BATHROOM??? Check out the incriminating pictures from Thorn, her hit LA club and a KNOWN drug den!_

Harry crouched down so he was looking up at her. “That's why we don't tell people who your mum is,” he said gently. “People would be all over that story, _your_ story, and they would say a lot of things that weren't true.”

“But why?” CJ ask, voice lost and bewildered. “Why would they do that?”

She'd asked the same question when she saw the magazine. Harry has turned around at the small “Daddy?” to see her clutching it in her hands and staring up at him with wide, horrified eyes. 

_Did Mommy do an interview? She didn't tell us she was doing an interview. Daddy, what are these pictures? What are they talking about?_

Harry had ended up throwing the tabloid onto the belt as a visual aid for the conversation about paparazzi they had later, and Audrey had called so they could talk about it. CJ had cried. Harry nearly had, and Audrey's voice had broken over the phone. 

“People like a sensation,” Harry said now. “A lot of people just want to read something exciting, even if it's not true.”

“Would they say things like, like that _I_ do cocaine?” CJ asked, and Harry sat up on his knees so he could kiss her forehead. 

“Oh, no, baby, no. No one would say something like that about you. But they–” And it wasn't fair, he _knew_ it wasn't fair to put this on her, but anything to keep her safe, anything to convince her to protect herself. “–they would say things about Audrey. About why she kept you a secret. A lot of people might be upset with her.”

“That's not _fair!”_ CJ cried. “She didn't do anything wrong! _I_ didn't do anything wrong! And they– they–” Her eyes were rapidly filling with tears, and Harry's heart clenched. “They'd say stuff about you too, wouldn't they?”

Harry thought about public arrest records, stories of wild behavior and hospitalizations, half-visible scars under his tattoos. 

“They wouldn't have anything to talk about,” he said. “Let's worry about looking after you, huh?”

* * *

_“There's a picture of me and CJ floating around,”_ Audrey said when she called Harry at three in the morning. _“You can't see her face, thank god, but it's_ out _there. Most people assume I gave her up when she was born but someone took a picture of us getting ice cream last week. If people know I'm still involved–”_

Harry was awake, barely, just climbing into bed when his phone rang, but adrenaline shot through his body hard enough to make him sit bolt upright. Uma, asleep next to him, murmured a sleepy enquiry and rolled over to face him. 

“Fuck,” he said eloquently. “Okay, you– her face isn't in it?”

 _“No,”_ Audrey said. _“But people take pictures all the time, and if someone else took some without realizing we were in them– if someone goes back through their photos, or that fucking Rose Watch twitter posts something–”_

Harry swallowed. “Okay, okay, we– we've talked about this. What do you want to do? People are going to put the pieces together, but if no one actually _saw_ CJ then she's still going to be safe, right? You could make a statement. Just post something on your Twitter about wanting privacy.”

 _“Maybe we can just ignore it,”_ Audrey said, frantic and tearful. _“We– I could come around less, maybe, stay in LA for a while–”_

“No,” Harry said flatly. “We've talked about that. One way or the other, whatever shit the two of us get dragged through, you're not walking out on CJ. We're doing this together.”

 _“I don't know what to do,”_ Audrey sobbed. _“I never wanted to do this to her, I wanted her_ safe, _I wanted her nowhere_ near _this fucking shit–”_

“It's okay,” Harry said soothingly. “Audrey, Brianna, hey. It's okay. We're gonna figure this out, okay? We've known this was going to happen eventually. I'll come up there. We can talk it over. And…” He sighed. “I'll bring CJ. You could stand to see her, and it's only fair we talk to her about this. It's her life.”

 _“She's eight,”_ Audrey whispered. _“She's just eight, this isn't fair, she shouldn’t have to even think about this.”_

“I know, love,” Harry said softly. “But we have to. It's not fair to her to leave her out of this conversation. This is going to hit her hard, too.”

 _“When I was eight, I was taking diet pills,”_ Audrey said. She wasn't crying now. Harry wasn't sure if the dazed blankness was better. Next to him, Uma wiggled a hand out from under the blankets to tangle their fingers together. Harry squeezed her hand. _“Eight is so young.”_

Harry's heart twisted in his chest. “Yeah,” he said softly, thinking of a broken beer bottle and scars littering his upper arm. “Eight’s tough.”

Audrey drew in a long, shaking breath. _“Okay,”_ she said quietly. _“Can you get up to LA today?”_

“We can be there in two hours,” Harry said. “Uma, can you–”

“I'll go get CJ up and pack a bag for her,” she said, crawling out of bed. “And I'll text Ben. You gonna be okay?”

Harry laughed and it came out a little wild, a little panicked. Uma grimaced and bent down to kiss his forehead. 

“It's okay,” she murmured. “It's gonna turn out all right.”

“Is it?” Harry asked. Audrey sobbed again in his ear, and he gripped his phone tighter. “It's gonna be okay,” he echoed, and she echoed his hysterical laugh in turn. “Hey, I have to go,” he said. “Call Chad, okay, have him come over. I don't think you should be alone right now.”

 _“Chad's already on his way,”_ Audrey said. _“He's the one who told me about the picture, he called me from his car. Told me to stay off Twitter today.”_

Harry snorted and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Smart man. Bless his obsession with social media catching this first.”

 _“God, I should call my manager,”_ Audrey muttered. _“He'll probably have some ideas too. Okay, I– I'll see you guys in a few hours.”_

“I love you,” Harry said. “It's gonna be okay, Bri.”

 _“Love you too,”_ Audrey said and hung up. 

Harry stares at his phone. Eight years in. Had to happen eventually. 

* * *

@audreyroseofficial: Yes, the rumors are true. Eight and a half years ago, I gave birth to a beautiful little girl. I have been a mother to her this entire time, but have made an effort to keep her out of the public eye. 1/

@audreyroseofficial: We're asking that everyone please respect that. She's very young, and there's a reason I haven't talked about her before now. 2/

@audreyroseofficial: I love her more than anyone or anything on this earth, and I just want what any parent wants: for her child to grow up happy, healthy, and safe. 3/3

1.2M retweets, 3.4M likes

* * *

_Audrey Rose: “Stay away from my daughter!”_

_Why Audrey Rose has kept her child a secret: the dangerous truth_

_Is Audrey Rose fit to be a mother? Her private doctor spills it all!_

_CJ ROSE-HOOK: The shocking reveal!_

_Why did Audrey Rose refuse to reveal her baby daddy? The truth about Harry Hook!_

_HARRY HOOK ARRESTED IN LA FOR ASSAULTING REPORTER_

_Audrey Rose: “Harry was protecting his family.”_

_Harry Hook’s SHOCKING PAST: from horrific abuse to attempted suicide!_

_Is Harry Hook safe to be around his daughter? Mental health experts weigh in!_

_Who is Harry Hook, anyway? Catch up on the last six months of the Audrey Rose scandal!_

_Like father, like daughter! CJ Hook suspended from school for causing fights!_

* * *

“She wasn't suspended,” Harry said, baffled. “She had the flu.”

“That's your issue with this?” Uma snorted. 

“Well, yeah,” Harry said. “CJ’s done jack shit. I pulled her out for a week because she had a fever, not because she was…” He pulled one of the tabloids closer so he could peer at it. “‘Following in her father's violent footsteps.’ How can footsteps be violent?”

“Gutter stomping,” Uma said. 

“God, this is fucked up,” Audrey mumbled, head in one hand and distressingly strong coffee in the other. “Swear to god, I never thought they'd focus on you like this. I really thought I would take the brunt of it.”

Harry shrugged. “S’long as it's not CJ.” He gave the latest tabloid a disgusted look. “Well, mostly not CJ.”

“It is slowing down,” Uma pointed out. “Like, it's shitty, but there's not as much these days.”

“This could– it's still _horrible,”_ Audrey said. “Some of this– that one that flat out said you're abusing CJ? Or the ones that just pick apart your childhood like it's nothing? This is the stuff that ruins people's _lives,_ Harry.”

Harry grimaced. “Don't get me wrong, I'm not enjoying it,” he said. “But I can take it. Bonny doesn't care beyond framing the one that called me a ‘tattooed thug,’ because she thought it was hilarious. It's hung up in the front of the shop, actually. My job’s not in danger, my friendships are intact, and according to…” He dug through the stack of magazines for a minute before he unearthed the one he was looking for. “Yeah, according to _The National Examiner,_ my sex life is thriving.”

 _POLYAMOROUS LOVE TRIANGLE,_ the headline proclaimed above a blurry shot of Harry, Audrey, and Uma at a Starbucks. _The wild sexcapades of Harry Hook and Audrey Rose!_

“Ugh,” said Audrey. 

“As if,” said Uma. “We haven't had a threesome in years, let alone with a celebrity.”

Audrey snorted coffee out her nose. Harry grabbed her a handful of paper towels, grinning apologetically while she coughed and Uma snickered. 

“Jesus _Christ,”_ Audrey rasped, still coughing. “How– oh my god, how many years is ‘years?’”

“Why is _that_ your question?” Harry asked at the same time that Uma said, “Fifteen. It was in college.”

“I was hypomanic at the time,” Harry offered. “Uma was just like that. Actually, how has no one caught onto _that_ one yet? They got weeks out of me punching a guy, but no one's noticed that I'm on mountains of medication?”

“They'll find it,” Audrey said darkly, dabbing the last of the coffee off her face and dropping the dirty paper towel on top of _The Examiner._ “They find _everything,_ and what they don't find, they make up.”

“They make up some good shit,” Harry muttered. “Hit the nail on the head with some of that.”

“You didn't try to kill yourself,” Uma said, and Harry laughed. 

“No, but my story is hardly _better._ Besides, most people know this stuff is trash. No one's going to notice if they get something right once in a while. It's fine.”

“Are people still following you to work?” Audrey asked quietly, and Harry sighed. 

“Yeah,” he admitted. “It's turned a few people off. But we've also got some people coming in just because of me, and since Bonny implemented the ‘tattoo or leave’ policy, business has been booming. So the shop is fine, that's not–”

“It's not about the shop,” Audrey said. “I want to know how _you're_ doing. How you're handling people literally following you around while you try to live your damn life.”

Harry leaned back in his chair, twisting his coffee cup in his hands. “It's… not good,” he said in a low voice. “I've been talking to Dawson twice a week instead of once every other, and I slammed face first into a depressive episode. It's fine,” he added quickly when Audrey drew in a sharp breath. “I'm handling it, talking, taking my meds. It's just, you know.” He shrugged. “It's been kind of an adjustment period, I guess.” He smiled grimly. “Sort of hoping I won't have to completely adjust. That they'll forget all this and we can go back to normal.”

“It'll blow over,” Uma said. “This shit always does.”

“And it is slowing down,” Audrey said. “The CJ thing is the first story in over a week. Give them a month and no one will notice anything short of you punching someone again.”

“He _grabbed CJ,”_ Harry said, gripping his mug tighter. Uma reaches over and tapped his hand to get him to loosen his grip before he broke it. 

“Believe me, I'm with you on that one,” Audrey said. “He's lucky it was just you there. I probably would have broken his nose.”

Harry sighed and stood up, stretching. “I gotta go pick her up. Get this shit off the table before she gets back, yeah? Her teacher’s been good about keeping it out of the classroom. I don't want her seeing it in our damn house.”

* * *

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear CJ, happy birthday to you!”

“And many moooore,” Jay sang out, and CJ laughed as she blew out the candles. 

“Yeah, one day I'll be just as ancient as you,” she shouted, and Jay gasped and clutched at his chest. 

“Harry! Your daughter just called me ancient! Control that kid!”

“CJ,” Harry scolded. “You can't call Jay old to his face. Tell Carlos and Gil so _they_ can make fun of him for it. They're allowed.”

“I want a boyfriend I can make fun of,” CJ complained. “Can I date Anthony?”

“You can't date Harriet’s husband,” Harry said, picking up the cake knife. “All right, what do you want?”

“Corner piece!” CJ said, pointing. “That one, with the rose on it.”

Harry laughed but glanced up at Uma as he cut it off for CJ. Uma looked at her phone, then shook her head. Not here yet, then. 

Almost as soon as he had the thought, the door burst open and Audrey ran it, accompanied by a burst of wet wind and the sound of thunder. She was soaked from head to toe, but CJ screeched and ran up to hug her. 

“Hi, baby girl,” Audrey said breathlessly. “Oh, happy birthday, honey!”

CJ giggled, pulling back to grin at her. “I thought you were in Paris!”

“I was in Paris this morning,” Audrey said. “I just landed and drove straight here from the airport. I have to be back on Monday, but today and tomorrow I get to spend time with you.”

CJ shrieked again, then grabbed Audrey's hand and tugged her into the dining room. “You just missed the candles, but that's okay. You can have the second slice, and then watch me open presents, come on!”

Audrey laughed and smiled at Harry as CJ pulled her past him, and he grinned back as he handed her the knife and went to pick up her bag where she had dropped it by the door. “CJ, should you let your mum dry off first?” he called after her. “Maybe take her coat off?”

“No, cake is more important,” CJ said. “Were there any paps at the airport? Did anyone bug you?”

Harry's smile faded, and Audrey's grew tight. “No, sweetheart, no one bothered me. I signed a few autographs, but that was it.”

CJ nodded, taking that as simply as Harry telling her the grocery store was out of Rice Krispies. Like it was just an everyday part of her life, the sort of casual conversation that had become so banal it was hardly worth noting. 

It wasn't what they wanted for her. In a perfect world, CJ would only be vaguely aware of the existence of paparazzi as people who bothered famous people, not ten-year-old girls. In a perfect world, Uma wouldn’t have spent months talking Harry through panic attacks in the middle of the night while he tried to come to terms with stolen files from the hospital being splashed across every rag in the country. In a perfect world, they would all be safe, and happy, and not always keeping an eye out for someone with a camera. 

Then again.

CJ was laughing around a mouthful of funfetti cake as Audrey dried her hair off with the towel Uma handed her. Jay, Gil, and Carlos were examining the table full of presents, and Ben and Mal were helping Audrey hand out slices of cake to a half a dozen of CJ's friends from school, saving more than one paper plate from falling to the floor. Evie was taking her own pictures of the party, pictures that would be theirs to keep, not shared with the world.

Who knew. Their world might be a little perfect after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings for non-specific references to past child abuse via forcing a young child to take diet pills, one reference to physical abuse, panic attacks, references to one character punching someone for trying to grab a child (to force the kid to talk to them, with no intent to harm the kid), paparazzi following people to work and making up stories about them, and references to abuse and suicide.
> 
> (If anyone was curious, and because I've put way too much thought into the particulars of this series, _Keeping Moody_ was a drama show that was basically an extended horror movie; Audrey got the role when she was six and played Moody for four years. It was way too dark for a little kid to watch, let alone star in, and I plotted out the entire fucking show because I guess I have nothing better to do with my time. Audrey maintains that the show itself had no negative effects on her psyche. Jury's out.)


End file.
